Michael Clarke's men to challenge Cook's dream

London, Jun 29: Australian captain Michael Clarke is confident of not giving away the No 1 spot to England by going down 0-5 in the upcoming ODI series and look forward to pull off a surprise series win against hosts.

While the 5-0 whitewash would see England reigning the world in all the three formats, as it is going to be the first team to be ranked No 1 in international cricket.

"It's important for us to play well and hopefully stay No.1. Our goal as an Australian cricket team in all three forms is to be No.1 in the world. I hope we can play some good cricket here in England and stay there," Clarke said at Lord's.

England skipper Alastair Cook also felt that a clean sweep would be an amazing achievement as they would be teh undisputed kings of world cricket but did not entertain it.

"Let's not get too carried away. It would be an amazing achievement (to be No.1 in three formats) but I don't want to get quoted saying stuff that gets blown out of proportion. Were desperate to keep going up the rankings but lets not get too carried away," he said.

The Australian batsmen will have to face the sensational pace attack consisting of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn and Tim Bresnan and spinner Graeme Swann in order to hold onto the series and retain their No 1 spot.

"They've had a lot of success in both Test and one-day cricket. It's no coincidence that the attack plays a big part in their results. They know the conditions as well as any team I guess. That's probably why they've won the last six series because they know the conditions so well. It's going to be a good test for our batters but it's a good opportunity to see where we're at," Clarke said.

Australia too have a large pool of talented bowlers as there are six in the touring side, while all the pacers will get a chance to play in the series.